The Hermaphrodite: Jim Sneddon or Vivienne Snowdon

"I have always associated myself with being female, and identified much more with girls when I was growing up. When I was little, I heard the alternative name my mother would have given me had I been born a girl and I thought 'Yes, that's who I should've been'," says Vivienne Snowdon.

Vivienne, 42, of Glasgow, is undergoing male-to-female gender reassignment. She has been receiving counselling and hormone treatment for 14 months under the NHS, and is planning to have the full operation in Thailand in October. The cost, including travel, will be £13,000, and she is raising the money herself. "It's something that I feel has to be done," she says. "For me, the process won't be complete until then."

It is hard for Vivienne – born Jim Sneddon – to say exactly when the process of her gender transition began.

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